I've spend two weeks slowly working at this. Holy crap I'm glad I didn't take this car to a shop to get this done.

(85 325e with 320,000 kms - no rust)

Some interesting notes... how the heck do I get the driveshaft out of the wheel bearing? Is there a snap ring I am missing?

The diff to axle carrier bolts weren't as hard when you have a 1ft box wrench then add another to the end of it for leverage. Neither were the bolts to the RCAs.

Now the complete PITA was the axle carrier to body mounting. The one side literally snapped off and left part of the locating pin in the body (that was fun drilling out). The other side wouldn't move at all. I had to literally swing the axle all the way around the parallel the opposite side of the car until it popped and dropped out.

There's apparently a special tool, but my solution has been to get a centre punch in the centre drill on the half shafts and pound away. The halfshafts came out very easily on my 1987 325i, but on my 1986 325e parts car, I mushroomed the centre punch a bit. Regardless, all 4 came out fine and that was using a wimpy 8 oz. hammer.

e30_kid89

06-11-2009, 06:42 PM

Good work, id put in some poly bushings at least in the subframe so you wont have to deal with that nightmare again...When I undo the 22mm nuts and punch out the pins my subframe literally pops free from the body, even after a year of inital install :)

SamE30e

06-11-2009, 08:31 PM

Yep, the rear subframe is a bitch to get out. The aluminum oxidizes itself to the body. I had the same thing happen.

guibo

06-12-2009, 01:05 PM

was the no rust comment sarcastic?

T.Dot_E30

06-12-2009, 01:19 PM

i have been putting off doing mine for over a year now.

I ordered all the parts, I even have a spare sub-frame and trailing arms. I planned to re-do the entire rear end......but the parts are still sitting in my closet.

DR.ZED

06-12-2009, 03:28 PM

Nah.. the car has literally no rust on it. I made that comment to validate the work involved. :)

guibo

06-12-2009, 05:12 PM

Nah.. the car has literally no rust on it. I made that comment to validate the work involved. :)

all i see is rust in your pics :huh?:

Bullet Ride

06-12-2009, 06:56 PM

all i see is rust in your pics :huh?:

It's pretty near impossible to have a 24 year old car with absolutely 100% zero rust on the under body. For its age its in good shape.

BMW BMXer

06-13-2009, 09:33 AM

all i see is rust in your pics :huh?:

Are you kidding me?

Its an 85 bro (That spent most of its life in Atlanta), that's nothing. Being the previous owner I take offense to that lol.

If you want to split hairs, there is not ROT on that car.

Boxer2

06-13-2009, 09:52 AM

in order to take the driveshaft out of the wheel bearing you have to first remove the dust cap, then take off the 30mm nut with an impact wrench, than you can use an air hammer with a pointy bit that fits into the recessed area on the end of the shaft, and drive it out, it should come out really easy...but this really isn't necessary to remove it for the job your doing, I would just leave it in, it will save you some time when you start putting things back together....I've done subframe bushing several times on E30's, and I must say it's so much fun, I love it.:P

guibo

06-13-2009, 10:46 AM

Are you kidding me?

Its an 85 bro (That spent most of its life in Atlanta), that's nothing. Being the previous owner I take offense to that lol.

If you want to split hairs, there is not ROT on that car.

well i take offense to people who say that their car is 'rust-free' when it really isnt. how many cars on sale say 'rust-free, 100% no rust anywhere' and then you go see the car and realise it was a big ****in waste of time.

rust free is rust free. NO ****IN RUST. i just spent the entire winter and now summer removing rust from a 'rust-free' e30. you can say, no visible body rust with normal underbody rust for an 85. fine, thats acceptable.

craz azn

06-13-2009, 11:15 AM

well i take offense to people who say that their car is 'rust-free' when it really isnt. how many cars on sale say 'rust-free, 100% no rust anywhere' and then you go see the car and realise it was a big ****in waste of time.

rust free is rust free. NO ****IN RUST. i just spent the entire winter and now summer removing rust from a 'rust-free' e30. you can say, no visible body rust with normal underbody rust for an 85. fine, thats acceptable.

Sorry Dave, but I have to agree with this man here ^^ He hit the nail right on the head. I too hate it when people say no rust, rust free, etc etc and ya, well... ya know lol.

I am not going to lie about my car, Its surely NOT rust free, but considering its driven year round, and been a Canadian car all its life, its in pretty good shape. Not mint, not rust free, just... emm... errr.. goodish? haha.

Regardless, damn you rust!! *uzi**uzi*

echo

06-13-2009, 08:42 PM

I'm always shocked by the rust on cars on overseas forums. We just don't seem to have the same problems over here. Yes, there are plenty of rusty cars, but the sort of rust I'm seeing on e30s on forums is like the rust on our cars from the 60's and 70's.

I see alot of rust in this thread. But none of it looks particularly terminal I have to admit.

BMW BMXer

06-14-2009, 07:16 AM

Alright I'm not going to continue to thread jack... not my ride anymore.

DR.ZED

08-02-2009, 05:47 PM

Okay, I'm finally done. Let me first say that lifting the rear diff (anybody know what a LSD diff weighs?) on my back and jackstands was NOT FUN!!!!

After everything was put back together I went out for my first LONG drive yesterday. Car is phenomenal and very tight. I completely forgot to get before pictures but I tried to have the car aligned and the alignment shop told me nearly 2.8 deg neg on the passenger and 1.1 or so neg on the drivers. It was obvious and actually pretty silly looking from the rear when you looked at the car from the back end. After the work I'm dead nuts even on both sides.

Some interesting notes when doing this project. The only work I didn't do was push out the axle carrier bushings and the diff bushing. The shop the did those three said it took them 2 hours of torch, hacksaw and press. They definitely earned the $100 to do this.

Make sure to clean out the receiving hole in the body where the axle carrier bushing goes into. I took my old bushing which still had a proper rod still attached (one broke) and cleaned it and used it as the template for how easily it went into the receiving hole. I used sandpaper to clean it.

Getting the diff up even 18" was a HUGE pain with its weight and odd size. I owe my wife big time for getting greasy with me helping.

Nearly all the bolts that go back have to be replaced as they are all lock nuts. To do a final torque of the control arm bushing bolts I put a jack under each control arm for the final torque and let the body rest to simulate ride height.

Have fun with the dumba$$ sway bar end links in the rear. They push in and are a major PITA to squeeze the sway bar through the small rubber opening (even when greased). Again with suspension loaded I tightened the lower nut for the end link.

... so here are the pix. (control arm bushings from AKGmotorsports and worked awesome)

All you need for the diff is a floor Jack and it becomes a one man job, I wouldn't ever try lifting one into place.

e30_kid89

08-02-2009, 07:49 PM

2 hours to change the diff and subframe bushings......OFF the car? I don't know thats kinda long..If you really wanted you could of changed each side in that time. But it's all good..It's done!

I reallllly wanna make some to make some track days either this or next month, hopefully I'll see you out there!

DR.ZED

08-03-2009, 08:44 AM

All you need for the diff is a floor Jack and it becomes a one man job, I wouldn't ever try lifting one into place.

The problem with jacking it up with a floor jack is that mine didn't have the height necessary. I then tried to balance it with two pieces of wood and got the height but you can imagine what happened next. ;)

I'm going to have to invest in one of those super long super high reach jacks.

richie_s999

08-03-2009, 10:12 AM

holy shit think you should look into that exhaust pipe for the next project...how many times did the prevous owners weld new peices???? WOW...anyway glad to here you got all that done, I am so not looking forward to a full suspension bushing redo next spring, but am sure the cars handling alot better now!!

dble Trouble

08-03-2009, 07:46 PM

If you're looking for a great track day come out to the Trillium event on the 23rd of August Sunday. There are going to be literally a tonne of e30's out. Not that it's limited to e30's but lots are going to be there.

richie_s999

08-03-2009, 10:17 PM

If you're looking for a great track day come out to the Trillium event on the 23rd of August Sunday. There are going to be literally a tonne of e30's out. Not that it's limited to e30's but lots are going to be there.

Already talked to Cam, you'll meet him on the 9th, he's away instructing at the track in Quebec that weekend

dble Trouble

08-04-2009, 12:15 AM

That sucks. ^^ See you on the 9th. Hey Rich my wife is coming too, so Lori better be there! :D